Kent Dorn’s paintings are slow accumulations: they take on paint to a degree that eventually projects them into strong relief. From the thinnest of backgrounds Dorn builds up his imagery – of hikers at the edge of a cliff, newlyweds in a park, a body thawing in the Spring snow and flash-lit candles on a banquet table – over several weeks. The canvas is further punctuated by coloured pins and details made of collaged-paper. This method of handling paint troubles the reading of the surface: backpacks, arms, hands, jaws and foliage are all thrust into topographical prominence. The paint itself becomes the subject of the work and the armature for the narratives emerging from within its encrusted confines.
Born in 1977 in South Carolina Kent Dorn graduated with an M.F.A. from the University of Houston in 2005. Most recently his work was included in “Monster Painting” with Andrew Guenther, Jose Lerma and Katherine Bernhardt among others (McClain Gallery, 2005).
